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Monday, May 6, 2013

Parents, Be Wrong And Admit It To Your Kids

*This is from a chapter directed at parents*

Oh!
That’s a scary thing, isn’t it? What if they ask you a question you
don’t know the answer to? New teachers have this same fear. I’m supposed
to be the smartest one in the room. I’m the Teacher. I’m the Parent.
I’m the Adult. I should have all the answers.

No.
No you shouldn’t. Be wrong. Be unsure. That tells your child that being
wrong is ok. I tell my students weekly that I want them to get things
wrong. My job is to teach them, but if they know everything I have
nothing to teach them. Them being wrong keeps me employed. I will never
ever yell at someone for being wrong. I’ll get on their case for not
trying, that’s a huge problem, but being wrong? Nope. Be wrong. Humans
are wrong with startling regularity. You can’t learn unless you’re wrong
first. I tell my kids I’m wrong all the time. When I make a mistake in
class they point it out. Oh, there is nothing more fun than pointing out
your teacher’s mistake. “Mr. Robertson! The answer is 52! You wrote
55!” “Why so I did. Thank you.” “Mr. Robertson, you misspelled ceiling!
Again.” Ceiling, for those of you who don’t know, is one of the most
frustrating words in the English language. It never looks right. Being
wrong is learning.

The best part of telling your child that you don’t know is it means you get to learn something together!
We now live in a world where all the knowledge is quite literally at
our fingertips. The Google Knows All. Take advantage of your smart
phone. Show your child how you find out something when you don’t know.
They learn from you. If you’re brave enough to be wrong, your son will
come to my class and he’ll be brave enough to be wrong.